Oriel Tegfryn

Meri Wells b.1946

Born in 1946, Meri Wells studied Art at Sutton & Epsom Schools of Art, followed by Art and Drama at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Based in mid-Wales, she is a ceramic sculptor whose studio and workshop is in a beautiful old house near Machynlleth. Here she produces both raku and wood-fired figurative sculptures using clays, some of which she digs locally. Part human, part animal or bird, her creatures suggest emotions and tensions that lie under the surface of all human relationships.

"The small ceramic figures come out of the hedge that I can see from the window. They march past reviving forgotten imagery of childhood stories and our cultural myths. I try to draw them in that first fleeting glimpse. They are best viewed in groups, from the perspective of personal history and the elemental associations with certain places".

Meri is a National Advisor to the Arts Council of Wales, and was elected both to the Royal Cambrian Academy and the International Academy of Ceramics in 2007.